The Eisner Award-winning comic series Sin City comes to life in this live-action feature adaptation from director Robert Rodriguez and creator Frank Miller. Interweaving multiple storylines from the series' history, this violent crime noir paints the picture of the ultimate town without pity through the eyes of its roughest characters. There's the street thug/i>

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Overview

The Eisner Award-winning comic series Sin City comes to life in this live-action feature adaptation from director Robert Rodriguez and creator Frank Miller. Interweaving multiple storylines from the series' history, this violent crime noir paints the picture of the ultimate town without pity through the eyes of its roughest characters. There's the street thug Marv (Mickey Rourke), whose desperate quest to find the killer of a prostitute named Goldie (Jaime King) will lead him to the foulest edges of town. Inhabiting many of those areas is Dwight (Clive Owen), a photographer in league with the sordid ladies of Sin City, headed by Gail (Rosario Dawson), who opens up a mess of trouble after tangling with a corrupt cop by the name of Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). Finally, there's Hartigan (Bruce Willis), an ex-cop with a heart problem who's hell-bent on protecting a stripper named Nancy (Jessica Alba). Featuring a who's who supporting cast that includes Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Devon Aoki, and Nick Stahl, Sin City promises to be one of the most direct translations from page to screen of a comic series, with shots and dialogue adapted straight from the original comic's panels. Rodriguez quit the Director's Guild when they refused to let Frank Miller co-direct the film, a deal hashed out after the two collaborators developed and shot the opening scene utilizing a green-screen process to harness the stark, black-and-white look of the books as a litmus test for the rest of the production. Quentin Tarantino was brought in and reportedly paid one dollar to direct an extended scene between Del Toro and Owen that amounts to one issue of The Big Fat Kill miniseries.

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

The highly stylized graphic novels of talented comic-book artist Frank Miller come to life in an equally stylized motion picture co-directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez. Starkly photographed in black-and-white (with strategically placed daubs of color), Sin City resembles its printed-page inspiration more closely than perhaps any previous comic-book adaptation. Rodriguez and Miller take great pains to replicate specific panels from the graphic novels, casting actors who resemble the pen-and-ink characters, posing them in the same positions, and employing the same dramatic interplay of light and shadow created by Miller’s bold brushwork. The reliance on comic-book imagery makes for an impressionistic look so visually striking that the viewer either won’t know or won’t care that the interrelated, episodic story lines are pure pulp, distilled from decades of hard-boiled crime fiction and the noirish movie thrillers of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Bruce Willis plays a rugged, honest cop -- one of the few working in Sin City -- who rescues a little girl from a sadistic rapist (Nick Stahl) whose big brother (Rutger Hauer) happens to be a politically well-connected clergyman. Framed into prison, the cop languishes for years, and the girl grows up to be a stripper (Jessica Alba) working in a nightclub frequented by a hulking ex-con (an unrecognizable Mickey Rourke) wanted for murder. Meanwhile, a corrupt detective (Benicio Del Toro) who is harassing one of the club’s waitresses (Brittany Murphy) is eventually killed by her boyfriend (Clive Owen). The resulting chaos ignites a war between Sin City’s armed prostitutes (led by Rosario Dawson) and dishonest cops infuriated by the murder of their crooked comrade. The movie’s two-dimensional underpinnings are reinforced by the comic-strip nature of its violence: people sustain multiple gunshot wounds without dying, plunge from great heights without injury, and soar dozens of feet through the air after being hit by speeding cars. There’s nothing even remotely realistic about Sin City, but its atmospherics are so convincing that viewers will believe they’re always right in the middle of this violent, grotesque, fully realized world.

All Movie Guide - Jeremy Wheeler

As far as comic adaptations go, Sin City is an unprecedented book-to-screen translation that's locked, loaded, and rip-roaring ready to introduce movie audiences to the mad genius that is Frank Miller. By meticulously re-creating the acclaimed comic creator's most personal work, co-director Robert Rodriguez has given Miller's creation the chance to live and breathe using the exact hard-nosed dialogue and iconic camera shots from the acclaimed graphic novels. The end result is a mad brushstroke of digital filmmaking that is risqué enough to be considered bold, while palatable enough for exploitive entertainment purposes. It remains to be seen what the unprepared masses will think of Sin City -- in fact, there couldn't be a better, more PC time for the flick to hit. Basically a slap in the face to neo-conservative ideals, the film is so full of gleeful graphic violence and raw, steaming sexuality that there's sure to be some kind of backlash somewhere. The cast is a knockout, with major kudos going to Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, and even a smaller, supporting appearance by Rutger Hauer as they fulfill their inspired casting choices and take delicious delight in this world of corruption and sleaze. The stark black-and-white visuals are the real star here though, merging film noir sensibilities and dynamic comic panel storytelling with the help of a heap-load of computer graphics and inventive filmmaking to create something that's new, raw, and refreshing. Additionally, the direct translation is both exciting and a bit jarring, lending an unusual pace that you don't see in modern cinema; just as the gusto violence will turn off many and probably create more cynics in the critical circles, so too will the film continue to polarize its viewers due to its experimental nature. Comparisons will no doubt be drawn between the page and screen for years to come, which might hurt the film simply because it is an adaptation and no matter how direct a translation it is, there's bound to be things that are lost in the process. Still, after years of being jerked around in Hollywood, Miller is finally given the tools to strut his stuff on the big screen and, love it or leave it, perfect or not, that's exactly what Sin City is.

Product Details

Release Date:

04/21/2009

UPC:

0786936769616

Original Release:

2005

Rating:

NR

Source:

Dimension

Time:

4:31:00

Special Features

Disc One - Restored Theatrical Version; Cine-Explore - Blu-ray Exclusive; Commentary With Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller; Commentary With Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino; Audio Track Featuring a Recording of The Austin Audience Reaction; ; Disc Two - Recut, Extended, Unrated Version; Kill'Em Good Interactive Comic Book - Blu-ray Version; Rodriguez Special Features; 15-Minute Film School; All Green-Screen Version; The Long Take; Sin City: Live In Concert; 10-Minute Cooking School; How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller to Make the Film; Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino; A Hard Top With A Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City; Booze, Broads and Guns: The Props of Sin City; Making the Monsters: Special Effects Make-Up; Trench Coats & Fishnets: The Costumes Of Sin City ; Teaser And Theatrical Trailer

Sin City could possibly be one of the best movies in the last fifty years. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are the true spotlight of this film, working together seamlessly. It is because of these two geniuses that this film feels just like a comic book. It doesnt hurt that the film also has solid performances from main stars Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen and Rosario Dawson. The rest of the cast backs them up well too. This is a must-see for anyone who enjoys movies at all.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

So many comic book films have entered the market these days it's difficult to tell the good from the bad. A number of them have taken grave liberties with their source material and produced products that are, at best, pale reflections of the comics that compromise them in hopes of greater marketability. Thankfully, Sin City is not such a film. Based on three miniseries from writer/artist Frank Miller's hyper-neonoir comic series of the same name, Sin City is an effortless translation of the comics page, even down to the dialogue. The difficulty that this film faces is that audiences not familiar with the comic series are bound to feel left out, if not confused and turned off by the film's combination of hard-boiled detective atmosphere and Kill Bill-style violence. This film is indeed ultra-violent and uncompromising in its portrayal of its source material's content, and interested parties would do well to check out the now readily-available graphic novel editions of the Sin City comics before they see the film to determine if its right for them. Fans of the series will be very pleased.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

This is one of the greatest films evermade its brutal violent has Jessica Alba do I need to say more...just a little okay uhhh it has decapatations and a great adaptaption buy this now but I wish the dvd had more extras but wishing wont help

Guest

More than 1 year ago

The acting in this film captures the dark and horrifying tales of a decaying city. This film is recomended with the highest regards.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

This Movie was a Comic Book being brought to life. i did enjoy this movie because I am a fan of Robert Rodriguez and I did enjoy the performances of Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, CLive Owen, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, and Benicio Del Toro. My favorite story would have to be "The Big Fat Kill" If you haven't read the comic, you would just enjoy it. Me and my friends went to see it one night because we bought tickets to another movie, but we sneeked into this one and we left that theater saying that was the greatest movie we have ever seen.

SpeedReader

More than 1 year ago

Half the time I couldn't figure out what was going on, but it was visually so beautiful I couldn't stop watching. But then again I rented this on the first weekend I had my plasma TV, maybe that had something to do with it.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

I really wanted to see this movie&#8230; not because word of mouth said it was amazing. All word of mouth I heard said it was alright. I wanted to see it because it was something new. Making film into a comic book rather than movies like Batman Begins and Spiderman where the comic book is adapted to a movie. So my mind set was positive. However, this translation from page to celluloid gets annoying. True, some shots looked amazing with the black and white and bits of red. It really is cool in the beginning however, the viewer becomes numb to it after a half hour and then you have to watch it like it&#8217;s just another movie. And as far as movies go, it&#8217;s not that hot. The film noir that the movie was going for seemed less like a movie of that genre than a spoof on it. The male leads were able to pull of some of the lines, but Frank Miller can&#8217;t write a female character to save his life. I understand that Rodriguez and Miller wanted to stay rigidly true to the source material, but some of the lines should not have spoken. I&#8217;m glad Rodriguez was able to but together such good actors, because a group of less talented ones would not be able to control their giggles. Mickey Rourke shines as Marv, but his story is less entertaining than that of Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba. Clive Owen does a great job as Dwight, but the storyline is barely amusing. The greatest parts of the movie are the opening scene and Bruce Willis&#8217;s final scene. Everything else is lack luster.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

Just let me get this out of the way: The movie was absolutely fantastic. I loved it! Now let me say that anyone who bought the DVD already is a fool. Robert Rodriguez said that he would release a much, much better edition in addition to the bare-bones edition that was just released. He has now delivered. The package looks absolutely stunning: multiple documentaries, behind-the-scenes looks, and a whole bunch of stuff that you wouldn't expect to make it to DVD. It will also inclued the complete graphic novel. WOW! Everybody hold on for this one it looks amazing!

Guest

More than 1 year ago

All I can say is Watch this movie.... very good I mean you got to see it. The filming was done with alots of thought put into it... the narrating is excellent stuff.... I could relate alots to Marv.... I noticed the ax fight scence some of it came straight out of US Army Special Forces school manual. This is a man's movie. Very good stuff ... I don't know if the girls will like this movie but it does show what a man has to go through just to help a girl wheter she is alive or dead. The battle between good and evil ( sometimes the underworld can be so twisted to make good and evil be on opposite sides despite the official postions of cop v.s. bad guy ) The movie is so much better when shown on closed captioning or on the DVD using the english subtitles. Good find !!!!

Heavy_Metal_Sushi

More than 1 year ago

Okay, so I have not exactly read all of the graphic novel, but I have flipped through & read some of it at a book store before, and what I did read of it looks to be filmed pretty closely to the graphic novel. There are some great performances by some great stars, and there are some pretty sexy actresses in it too. Anyone who knows me, too, knows that I love movies adapted from comic books and graphic novels, so long as a good job is done on them, and this one was very well made. I saw this one for the first time with my fiancee, who was actually rathered grossed out by a little of it & didn't really want to see it again, but I very much enjoyed it. I highly recommend this movie, but not to children or the squeemish, because there is gore, extreme violence, language, and a little nudity in it. I think it's simply great though...one that I could watch over and over again!

Guest

More than 1 year ago

If you are a fan of Frank Miller's work on comics, check this film out. When you have names on a movie like Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller & Quentin Tarantino, you know it's going to be something special. I hope you enjoy this film as much as I did.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

I didn't know anything about this movie going into it, just what I saw in one preview. I found myself really enjoying it. The dialogue was a little odd in places, but I attributed that to the format - going from graphic novel to movie and also that they were walking a fine line between being 'noir' and parodying 'noir'. Other than that my husband and I really enjoyed this movie and plan on buying it soon.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

I've never read the graphic novels, but this movie impressed me very much. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. The acting might be a bit wooden in places, but that's just the style of film noir I suppose.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

I think that this film is a film that displays the dark realities of our decaying metropolitan cities, even though this is set in a dystopian and totally unrecognizeable world from our own. The violence in this movie, I think, even brough the level of bloodiness and goriness way past acceptable levels, but it was in a way that somehow was convincing. Bruce Willis played one of his best roles, I think and I think this movie can be compared, in another few decades with that of Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch. (The latter suggestion was to Quintein Tarantino, since his favorite direcor is Peckinpah.)

Guest

More than 1 year ago

This movie was incredible i watched it 3x in the theater and i was spell bounded every time i watched it. I own all of the comics besides booze broads and bullets and their just couldnt be a more faithful adaption of a comic,their wasnt a scene in the movie that wasnt in the comics. Also I was looking foward to this moveie sice I first heard about it in wizard like 2 years ago and boy did it not disapoint. every film fan or comic fan needs to buy this movie right away. One more side note its also buy far the best digital movie ive seen to date, and that includes star wars for all those people out their going like o no not my star wars its much better, well quite frankly its not, and im a star wars fan, so enjoy it.

Arn

More than 1 year ago

Not for the faint of heart.

elijah_matthews

More than 1 year ago

I saw this film SIX times in the cinema and countless times on DVD. It is probably the best film to date in the vein of mixing old school story with new school technology. Rourke steals the show ( as always) and Rosario Dawson is H.O.T.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

I own this movie, and after watching it, I thought it was amazing. Actors hired for the movie, were really good, the movie looks alot like the graphic novels, except they had to edit out alot of the nudity, that was shown in the Novels, which wasn't shown in the movie. The things I didn't like about the movie, I think the movie got too violent at many points, they tried to make the movie like Pulp Fiction with the three story plot, but they didn't succeed in that, and none of the story's even connected, and finally Josh Hartnett's role surved no purpose in the movie. Other than that, the movie was amazing.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

After hearing very negative reviews of this movie from about three of my friends I had decided to pass on this movie and wait for the DVD release. Fortunately for me one select friend of mine persuaded me in to going to a late night viewing the week before it left all of the theaters in the area. After watching the movie I have decided that I will never enlist my friends opinions on movies again. I was amazed. The narration in the movie was well done, gritty. Film noir from the forties and fifties came to mind during the movie. The story was excellent (or should I say stories?). Each chapter of the movie laid out a completely different character, each of them an anti-hero with one exception (Bruce Willis' character). To be blunt the movie is one of the most brutally violent I have seen to date. This would normally mean that there is nothing but large explosions and lots of blood. While there is a sizeable amount of blood found during the movie, the explosions are not very plentiful. The emotional impact of the movie is very carefully brought to you threw one story that is split up in order to be the beginning and the end of the movie. I found myself on the edge of tears at the end of the movie. After nearly three hours of brutal violence, heartbreak, mystery, and horror, the real-life emotion of Bruce Willis' character becomes hyper-effective. Of course, I'm sure everybody by now has seen or heard word of the excellent special effects and cinematography it is nearly impossible to make a complete review without mentioning the actual look of the film. Simply put: it's amazing. I was extremely pleased with Rodriguez choice to stick with the black and white look of the comic books. The movie is amazing, and while not the best I have ever seen, is certainly in the top 5 in my short term list. 5 stars, well earned.

Shaka_Beach

More than 1 year ago

one of the most visually amazing movies i have seen. The plot was of course good. I think if you watch the movie, theres no reason to read the novels. the only problem

Guest

More than 1 year ago

I love this movie! I went into it, not knowing exactly what to expect. All I knew is that it was a new film from Robert Rodriguez and that good enough for me. For me, it was "Kill Bill Vol. 1", only out in the streets. I also like how the movie was more than one story. After I saw the movie, I was inspired to read the comics. I can't wait till this movie comes to DVD!!